


Who Needs Sleep?

by in_motu_proprio



Series: MCU Rewatch 2019 [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Drug Use, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-29 02:57:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18217262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/in_motu_proprio/pseuds/in_motu_proprio
Summary: This is my take on what happens after Tony outs himself as apiping hot messto Pepper.For Iron Man 3





	Who Needs Sleep?

“I’m gonna take a shower.” 

The pause had Tony’s heart pounding. Rejection. Pepper was walking away from him, this was it. He’d just laid it all on the line and she was just walking away. Tony’s heart had climbed roughly into his throat by the time he replied. “Okay.” Tony swallowed thickly, trying to hide the tremor in his left arm by pressing his palm to the metal rail of his cart. 

“And you’re gonna join me.”

“Better,” but that wasn’t close to what Tony was feeling. Just that tiny acknowledgement from her, the agreement that they weren’t splitting apart but coming together, helped. It helped more than Pepper would probably ever know. He was on his feet heading her way not realizing just how exhausted he was until he tried to put one foot in front of another and move. Pepper took his hand when he got close enough, though, and that helped. Tony had been sincere when he told her she was the only thing that mattered, the thing he had to protect above all else and just feeling her there warm and alive and _safe_ meant everything.

By the time they got upstairs, Jarvis had taken care of starting the shower and there was a faint mist of humidity crawling out from the bathroom. One of the bots was in the room cleaning up and paused when they entered waiting for any command. When none was given, it went back to its job. All the while it watched them, Pepper slowly took Tony’s shirt off. “So when you said you don’t sleep,” Pepper asked gently, her hand running over his chest in a slow line. 

“Couple hours maybe, on a good night.” He talked tight and close, teeth a little clenched because it was embarrassing that his body was flipping out on him like this. “Last night wasn’t a good night, night before… nope…” 

“So you tinker and keep your brain going,” Pepper asked. “What have you done to try to calm your senses?” She glanced up, “Jarvis can you add that lavender and chamomile mix I use to the scent profile in the bedroom and bath?” 

“Of course, Miss Potts. Shall I brew you each a cup of tea?” 

“I don’t drink tea,” Tony pointed out. 

“You’ll drink this,” Pepper told him without question. She looked at him with those soft, sweet eyes he really couldn’t get enough of. “Are you hungry?” 

“Not really.” Pepper could read that ‘not really’ meant: don’t make me make decisions right now. 

“Jarvis, please bring dinner upstairs along with a few strains for us to select from,” Pepper looked at Tony. “Strong Indicas, please.” 

“Shall I bring out the concentrates,” Jarvis asked evenly. 

“No, thank you. The flower will be sufficient.” They didn’t indulge every night, but Pepper was a strong believer in cannabis as medicine as well as an enjoyer of the recreational side of things. Throwing in that it helped Tony seriously decrease his intake of liquor made a big difference, too, in her approval. And, honestly, right now her approval and endorsement of anything meant Tony was going to pay it some attention. “Come on,” Pepper said as she unfastened the button on his jeans, “let’s get you in the shower.” 

“You sayin’ I stink, Potts?”

“I’m saying… you’re a little ripe, Mr. Tinkerer.” She smoothed her hand down his chest again, just continuing to connect in little ways that helped keep Tony’s mind on this planet and not a damn wormhole. 

“I showered…” Tony paused to think as she took of his jeans and underwear, shoes and socks long since abandoned while Tony walked across their bedroom. One of the bots had already picked them up and put them neatly in the closet. 

“Exactly, you can’t even remember.” Pepper turned, sweeping her hair away from the zipper, “help me out of my dress.”

“My pleasure.” Tony had to try twice because his hands weren’t steady. How had he been working with high test tools again? Maybe he ought to have Jarvis put a limit on things like that when he hadn’t slept. Pepper was just sliding out of her dress when a bot came back in with the choices for tonight’s smoking laid out each with a prerolled joint next to a container of the herb itself so they could examine them. “Oh, treats,” Tony laughed and leaned in to kiss Pepper’s shoulder. “You’re real good to me, Pep.” 

“I’ll be better to you in the shower,” Pepper told him as her hand reached down to caress his hip. “If you’re up for it.” 

“Please put a bullet in my head the day I’m not up for that.” Tony turned and kissed Pepper softly, just a little tender kiss to seal the deal. He lingered a moment in her space before turning to their choices. “Starkiller… Bio Jesus,” Tony read aloud. “Oh no… this one.” He handed it to Pepper to read mostly because he liked it when she read funny strain names. 

“9 Pound Hammer,” she said.

And he liked it when she mentioned tools. It helped keep his attention in the early days so she’d had a lot of analogies talking about tools she’d clearly just looked up on Wikipedia. “Say it again,” Tony teased feeling lighter somehow as she turned the joint around in her fingers and ran the flame over the end. 

“9… Pound…. Hammer,” Pepper repeated before handing a smoldering joint to Tony. “Two or three hits then we shower.” She was right, it was a good combo. Pepper really was doing anything she could to get him some REM sleep. While Tony had his little smoke, Pepper took her time removing undergarments, looking angelic in all white. Though he did notice that she’d opted for no hose today. 

“I like it when you say tools.” Pepper rolled her eyes as Tony reached out to touch her calf as she bent to slide off her bra. “No stockings? I thought you always wore them.” Jealousy popped up for a second as Tony thought of Aldrich Killian and his stupid big brain. 

“It was warm today,” Pepper reasoned. “Why?”

“No reason,” Tony said a little too quick and got a stare that said they’d come back to the conversation another time when he wasn’t quite so exhausted. 

“Mmmmmhmmmm,” was all Pepper had to say to that as she shucked off her bra and panties and walked over to him beautifully bare. “How may hits is that, Tony?” 

“… um… two,” he guessed. 

“Four,” she countered before taking the joint and taking a long pull herself then putting it out. “I told you two or three.” She took his hand, pulling him toward the bathroom with a cluck of her tongue. “Good thing I made the typical _Stark Adjustment_ in my expectations for intoxication.” 

“The Stark Adjustment,” Tony scoffed as Pepper pulled him into the large shower they shared, all four shower heads blasting out gloriously warm water. “Oh… that’s so good I’m going to forgive you for that,” Tony teased.

“Keep talking and you’re going to lose the hand job I was thinking about giving you.” Pepper reached down to squeeze Tony’s hip, thumb stroking across his stomach low. 

“Consider this me shutting up then,” Tony told her with a kiss. “But there’s just one more thing,” he laughed a little when she put her hand over his mouth to shut him up.

“Quiet…. Jarvis, put on some soft music, something calming.” Jarvis came up with something nice and trance inducing at least that’s what it felt like ten minutes in when Pepper was rubbing his shoulders with the loofah and kissing a path down the nape of his neck. She leaned in against his back, kneeling behind him on the bench that ran along three of the four walls of the shower. Tony loved the feeling of her behind him like this. It was why he was almost always the little spoon. There was no place in this world Tony felt safer than in Pepper’s arms. “Sit in the corner,” she directed quietly before unfolding herself into a standing position only to go kneel in the corner facing him. The corner seats were deeper, designed for encounters like this. They were out of the direct spray of the water for the most part but still enveloped in the cloying steam. “Lean back.” Pepper pressed herself to his back, hand snaking around to take Tony’s cock into her palm. 

“Fuuuuck, Pep…” Tony looked up but she redirected him to relax back into her as she started to stroke. All of it, from the music to the weed to the smell of the air to her hand on his cock were designed to knock Tony out and he prayed it worked because this was _nice_. 

“Shhhhhh.” Pepper laid one finger over Tony’s lips. “Just lean back and relax,” she encouraged him, hand keeping up the same slow stroke that was driving him wild. It wasn’t his usual frenetic wild, more of a languid wild where he’d give slow twists of his hips or a gentle roll of his core up into her. Pepper had his full attention, something very few people could command. “Just tell me when you’re close,” was all she said for the rest of the time, just continuing to work his cock in a slow, firm pace that made Tony’s toes curl. 

It went on like that for about five more minutes, Tony hanging on the edge before he knew he was going over. “Pep…” he warned softly, looking up at her. Pepper leaned in to kiss him at that moment, stroking him through one of the best old fashioned hand jobs he’d ever had. “I love you.”   
After coming up from a soft kiss to Tony’s temple, Pepper smiled. “I love you, too.” Pepper was so good to him, _too_ good to him, and this was just another example of that. She held him for a long few minutes, touching his chest, his stomach, even occasionally going back to stroke his cock though he had nothing left in him. 

When he finally had half a brain, she got him to his feet and to the bedroom. Pepper pushed the waiting, warm cup of tea into his hands as she rifled through his dresser and found him what were possibly his most comfortable sleep clothes. How did she know that? He answered himself moments later that Pepper knew nearly _everything_ about him, the most out of any person living or dead, that was for sure. As he sipped his tea, he was focused on a rivulet of water slipping from hair to skin as it dripped down her neck. 

“Come on, bed,” Pepper quietly encouraged once Tony had dressed. He was halfway through some sort of sleepy time blend of tea that tasted vaguely sweet at the end. He’d have to ask her what was in it. Pepper got him settled relatively quickly and then laid there behind him running her fingers through his hair until Tony finally drifted off to sleep. And for the first time in a very long time, Tony thought he might actually get some sleep.


End file.
